EWTN CEO Michael Warsaw said the network's suit is not about compromising women's health care but standing up for freedom of religion and speech.

Warsaw explained that the mandate would use donor money to pay for morally objectionable health services like birth control, the morning after pill, and sterilization.

"Under the HHS mandate, EWTN is being forced by the government to make a choice: Either we provide employees coverage for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs and violate our conscience, or offer our employees and their families no health insurance coverage at all," he said.

"Neither of those choices is acceptable," he said.

EWTN is a Alabama-based religious broadcaster that provides Catholic programming and a news coverage from around the world.